Title: Smoking Salmon And Trout Part VII- Kippering and Barbecui
Categories: Fish, Smoke, Info
Yield: 1 text file
These are different processes from Scotch smoking which is cold
smoking- the fish remains raw. Kippering and barbecuing are hot smoke
processes where the fish is cooked. In barbecuing you have no control
over the heat; the smoke is hot only. The fish is placed in a
pre-heated smoke oven and kept there until cooked. The only control
is smoke on or off during prolonged cooking. In kippering you
gradually bring up the heat to condition the fish before final hot
smoking and cooking.
The salting procedures are the same for both cooking methods. You can
kipper or barbecue whole sides for special occasions but pieces of
fillets cut according to thickness is easier to salt and smoke cook.
You can dry salt, plain or mixed, whole sides and wet brine, plain or
mixed, pieces. Thick sides are hard to dry salt so either slice into
two thinner fillets or inject brine.
Plain salt:Score the skins as for dry salting before Scotch curing and
place the salt the same way. The time required is 1/3 as much as for
Scotch smoking and 1/6 if brine is injected. This is because Scotch
smoked fish must be thoroughly conditioned so as to be able to slice
it thinly but here we are just adding enough salt for flavor. Also
Scotch smoked fish is an appetizer, a tid-bit and can be salty to the
taste but kippered and barbecued fish is a main course. After dry
salting, simply rinse off the salt and drain before cooking.
Salt mixes: add 3/4 cup white or brown sugar to each 2 1/4 c
pickling salt and optionally add up to 50 bay leaves, 8 tsp pepper, 2
tb mace, 7 tsp allspice, 2 1/4 tb cloves, or 2 tb juniper berries.
Prepare the side for salting as for dry salting for Scotch smoking
and place the salt as for Scotch smoked fish. The time required is
1/2 as much as for Scotch smoked fish or 1/4 if brine is injected.
Plain Brine: Prepare brine [2 1/2 c salt to 2 qt water] and cool to
50 deg. Keep fish and brine cool at all times. Stir pieces from time
to time. The time required is about 3/8 as much as for plain brining
for Scotch smoking. Drain fish coming out of the brine before
smoking/cooking.
Sugar-Spice Brine: Prepare brine as for Scotch smoked sugar spice
brine. Time: 3/8 as much as Scotch smoked method. Drain fish coming
out of the brine before smoking/cooking.
Reusing brines: Because the fish has absorbed sugar and salt and
released water, you must bring the brine back up to strength by
adding more salt or mix. Use a salinometer to be accurate and bring
back up to 90deg salinity.
Smoking Kippered Salmon: Drying- is important for appearance and
flavor. During drying the salt soluble protein protein from the fish
forms a skin on the surface called a pellicle which combines with the
smoke for a pleasant appearance and most of the smoke flavor. Methods
of drying include hanging under building eaves in a breeze out of the
sun, with a fan, a forced draft smoker and a small clear fire in a
natural draft smoker. Dry at 100 deg with maximum draft for 1 1/2 hr
[forced draft] or 3-4 hours [natural draft].
First smoking- 1 hr, medium density at 100 deg.
Tempering- is gradual as opposed to sudden heating and is important
for appearance and quality, so soluble protein juice does not pool on
the surface and form curds or the flesh dry unevenly and crack.
Gradually raise the temp to 175 with medium smoke over an hour.
Second Smoking- 1 hr at max. smoke at 175. Take thinner pieces out of
the smoker now and give the thick pieces 1 more hour.
Barbecued fish: after salting or brining, place in a hot pre-heated
smoker and cook until fish flakes readily.
Storage: of kippered or barbecued fish. Cool as quickly as possible.
Do not wrap before it has cooled or it will spoil. Freeze the surplus
promptly.
Extracted from: Smoking Salmon & Trout by Jack Whelan. Published by:
Airie Publishing, Deep Bay, B.C. ISBN: 0-919807-00-3 Posted by: Jim
Weller
